Absent from the Contingency Plan are the crucial topics on improving diagnosis and record/data acquisition and analysis.

Professor Martin Hugh-Jones’
comments, written before the present outbreak, sum it up perfectly:

“Some aspects which I hold are
vital:

[1] Animal side tests
of reliable sensitivity and high specificity. Nobody should or need wait
for reference-quality laboratory
confirmation.

[2] Wireless data acquisition from
the farm at the time of examination and preliminary diagnosis by laptop or
other suitable electronic device. Ditto updated data as the herd is processed.
If "wireless" is difficult, it should be through a website or other access
system that is available at all times. This should, if possible, include
digital graphics acquisition and transmission -- if Page Street doesn't
believe the VO, he can, for example, send a photograph of the lesions he has
seen or of anything else.

[3] That data should be
immediately omni-available, at least throughout
Defra.

[4] The data loggers should have
GPS chips installed so that there are no errors in accurately locating
diseased, suspect, or healthy herds.

[5] Data should be GIS
linked so that situations on individual farms can be queried remotely --
e.g., klik on a farm icon on a quasi-3-D map display, as well as to
either constantly updated frequent analyses or by idiot-able custom
analyses.

Use my other comments as you
like.

I don't think it is wise to firmly
believe that all future FMD episodes will be like 2001. One of the commonest
errors is to assume a worse-case scenario. Obviously the system should be able
to be racked to deal with such an event. But as presently planned I get the
distinct impression that there will be more veterinary officers at committee
meetings or writing reports for committees than out in the field dealing with
the problem…

As a last word, Defra should not be
re-fighting the last war, but planning and training for the
next.”

Note:

Martin
Hugh-Jones is a UK (Cambridge)-trained vet, currently Professor of Epidemiology,
Dept. of Pathobiological Sciences,
School of Veterinary Medicine, Louisiana State University, and Moderator of
ProMED-mail.